A Question Headmaster
by jswolfe
Summary: Albus must answer some inquisitive students' questions. Rated M just in case.
1. 1. A nighttime rendezvous

I do not own Harry Potter or the characters therein. They are the property of J.K. Rowling.

"speech"

_thoughts_

Now let's get the show on the road.

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Albus Dumbledore was seldom surprised, but he was a little curious about the soft knock on his door at this late hour. Touching the wardstone on his desk to release the locks, he called out "Enter." His curiosity increased at the figure entering his office. "What a pleasant surprise at this time of night. How can I help you this close to curfew Miss.." "Stupefy."

He awoke to a deep throbbing headache. It had been several decades since he's been caught so flat-footed. He truly was getting old. Through the haze of pain he reached out with his senses both magical and non to evaluate his situation.

Not good. He was tied to a chair with his hands bound up and his mouth stuffed with something. Also, he could not feel the magic of Hogwarts around him. The air was cool and damp. He could hear echoing drips in the distance and the shuffling of clothing in front of and a little to his right. He could smell dank air and a slight hint of decay. Inwardly sighing, he noted that his eyes weren't blocked, so his abductor didn't fear being seen. It was time to open his eyes.

He had been alive for over a century and had seen many strange and awful things. Nothing quite prepared him for what he beheld when he opened his eyes.

No more than five feet from his face was the giant head of a basilisk corpse. _Ah, the Chamber of Secrets then._ To the right of the head stood a scowling fifteen years old girl with her arms crossed across her chest, tapping her foot in obvious impatience. He didn't hear the tapping of her foot.

With a wave of her wand he could hear her foot tapping. "You're finally awake."

He looked at the girl with his magical sense and was alarmed at all of the defensive and offensive magics arrayed around her. She was taking no chances.

"Headmaster. You're here to answer some questions." The girl's usually friendly tone was as cold and hard as the chamber walls. _Who is controlling her? As_ if she could hear his thoughts. "Headmaster, I assure you I'm acting fully on my own agency." Even with a gag over half his face his disbelief must have been evident as the girl raised her wand straight in the air and spoke an oath "I, Hermione Jean Granger am acting fully within my own agency to capture and question Albus Dumbledore. So I swear." Magic flashed from her wand. She then cast a lumos to prove the point. His shoulders dropped. He'd hoped she'd been imperius'ed. _She is muggleborn. Why would she do this?_ The question must have shown on his face.

"I promise you headmaster this is not about anything as trite as your feud with Tom Riddle."

Miss Granger looked over his shoulder and nodded. He felt the tip of what was very likely a wand with a spell prepared if his magic sense told true touch the base of his skull. His heart sank. Of course she was smart enough to recruit help. The girl looked at him again and continued. "Headmaster, I'm going to remove your gag, but if my friend and I think for even a moment you're trying anything we will just cut our losses and leave you down here. He contemplated for a moment. Perhaps if he…. "And before you decide to try wandless wordless magic to turn one of us against the other, be aware that even you couldn't stop the reducto at the base of your skull from being cast before you joined Nick on the Headless Hunt." His eyes widened. Where had all of this ire come from. Sighing internally once more, he nodded his acceptance of the terms.

The girl kept her wand trained on him as she reached forward and unstrapped and removed the ball gag from his mouth. He worked his jaw for a few moments to relieve the ache he hadn't noticed until that moment.

It was time for him to regain control of the situation. "Miss Granger, I am very disappointed that you would attack and abduct me. Have I not always shown you kindness and respect?" The only warning he got of the girl's reaction was the lift of her right eyebrow before the bitter laughter started. Now was his chance. He pushed very hard on Miss Granger's accomplice behind him only to run headlong into a mass of confusing sensations. The sensations seemed to be of a teenage girl… in bed… As old as he was, Albus blushed. "Headmaster, it's very naughty peeking in on a girl's private memories." a musical voice spoke softly next to his ear. "Of course, this isn't the first time you've done so, is it?" _How much did these girls know?_ "I assure you Miss Lovegood, I don't know what you're talking about." "You've manipulated Hermione's mind Headmaster." "Ladies, let me free and we can sort out these wild accusations." Hermione practically growled "No, Headmaster. You have one chance. You will submit to questioning under veritaserum and answer our questions." "Of course not! Why in the world would I agree to that?!" Miss Lovegood's musical voice chuckled near his ear "Because the veritaserum we coated the ballgag in should be starting to take effect…. now." To his horror, his will to resist started to fade. He could feel his mind opening and wanting to help the nice young ladies on either side of him. He tried to push the feeling back with occlumency, but it was like pushing back the tide with his bare hands. The serum's effects seeped around and under and through his occlumency until he was left smiling genially at Miss Granger. Hermione looked at Luna and nodded. "I think it's working." Luna's voice answered from his side. "All the same we should be careful. Are we sure it's enough?" Hermione smirked "This should be plenty. This would be enough to get Harry to be an open book for a week, and you know how he can be." The blonde girl giggled "Well, there are other ways to get Harry to open up…"

Albus knew he was in trouble as he watched the girl in front of him blush. He'd known the boy was close to the muggleborn witch, but romantic entanglement was unexpected. Drat the Lovegood girl. He sensed her influence in this level of closeness. Ordinarily he'd expect the boy to be far too damaged to form any relationships deeper than friendship. "Nooo…" he moaned, unable to stop himself. "What was that Headmaster?" Luna softly asked him.

Albus couldn't stop himself, the words spewed forth "Harry cannot fall in love. He won't be able to be used to stop Voldemort…" Hermione's dark eyes flashed "Explain Headmaster." "All of the work I've put into shaping him into a tool to be used against Voldemort would be wasted. He wasn't to think of a life beyond this war. He must be a willing sacrifice…" He could hear teeth grinding near him as Luna Lovegood stepped into his vision. He'd never seen the cold anger that burned in the usually placid witch's features. "Why would you think to need a baby to be raised as he has been if Voldemort had been defeated Headmaster?" At the same time Hermione asked "Why would he need to be a sacrifice?" Albus fought to hold back the truth. He'd already said too much. He'd need to put measures into place if he managed to get out of this situation.

He struggled mightily to hold back the flood of words only for them to spill out. "I believe when Voldemort struck Harry with the killing curse, he unwittingly made Harry a horcrux, leaving a piece of his soul in that cursed scar. That is why Harry sees flashes of Voldemort's thoughts and feelings. That is why Harry must fulfill his part of the prophecy." Here he was able to stop. Apparently the veritaserum accepted that he'd told them enough. Sadly, the two witches disagreed. Hermione asking "What is a horcrux?" while Luna asked "What prophecy?". Again the serum drove him to answer. "A horcrux is created through a very dark ritual, with the purpose of splitting off a piece of the caster's soul to protect against death. In the event of normally fatal injury, the magic of the horcrux keeps the caster alive. In regards to the prophecy, your aunt, Professor Sibyl Trelawny gave a true seeing about young Harry.

Albus Dumbledore then did the very last thing he wanted to. He spilled the prophecy in total to the two witches. "Goatfucker!" "Hermione! Language!" "Well, he is.." "It's true. I am the one that had relations with a goat. It was part of an ancient ritual to…" "Shut up you old pervert. We don't want to hear about goat love." Luna shot him with a stinging hex. "Hermione, I know you are very angry right now, but we must keep clear heads if we're to be of any use to Harry." Hermione's hair was frizzed out in her anger. Luna reached her hand out, cupping Hermione's cheek, drawing her gaze away from the source of her ire. Her gaze softened at the steadying look of love on Luna's face. " I know you're right Luna, but if we didn't still need him I'd actually seal him up down here with this damned basilisk."


	2. 2 An Interlude with Delores Umbridge

Author's Note. Sorry for the delay. My muse was distracted. Anyways, I don't own Harry Potter. This work is rated M just in case.

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An Interlude with Delores Umbridge

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Harry Potter was not having a good year. To be honest, it was a better year than most, but that wasn't saying much. There were just fewer threats to his life and welfare than usual.

His current detention was giving him cause to reevaluate that sentiment. "Professor" Umbridge had him writing lines with a magical quill that etched words into his flesh. If that were not terrible enough, she kept lengthening the lines he'd need to write.

He was beginning to think Hermione was right and he should keep his mouth shut. To hear this foul creature spewing such ridiculous and dangerous lies though, he couldn't stand it. He had to speak up.

He was on his fortieth iteration of "I will not spread preposterous lies and foment public panic." with each stroke etching deeper into his arm. The sentence scrawled most of the way to his shoulder, bleeding freely at this point and hurting rather badly. It certainly wasn't the worst pain he'd felt, but he'd need some dittany before the night was out.

"Tut tut Mr Potter, the longer you dawdle, the more lines I'll require of you. You should be capable of at least one line per minute." Umbridge chided in her saccharine voice. The kitten plates seemed to mock him. Harry ground his teeth and wrote faster.

"Not so defiant now, are we?" she jibed. Harry resisted glaring at her. If he could see the predatory smile on her face, he'd have scowled. "Given the success of this little punishment, I think I'll just need to use it more widely. Your little mud-muggleborn friend could use a bit of an attitude adjustment, don't you think?"

At the suggestion of harm coming to Hermione any pretense of holding his temper fled. Harry Potter's eyes seemed almost to glow a bit as a deep scrowl came over his features. That death green flare locked onto the calculating stare of Dolores Umbridge, who suddenly looked less sure than a moment before. Harry's untidy hair moved and crackled with the magic surging through him. The quill gripped in his hand began to smoke. The uncertain look on Delores Umbridge's face now held traces of fear she desperately wanted to hide. "I believe that is enough for tonight Mr Potter. Return to your house." Harry continued to scowl at her, if anything the scowl deepened and he continued to write with the quill smoking and threatening to ignite. When he'd finished his line, he put the quill down, packed his things, picked the quill and parchment up and walked up to Delores Umbridge's desk. He placed the parchment down, laying the smoking quill across it and headed for the door. Pausing, Harry looked back. "Professor Umbridge, you're not going to make Hermione write with that quill." As he strode out, Delores' shocked outrage became alarm as the quill finally ignited, taking most of the parchment with it. The last line was still legible_. I will protect Hermione Granger even at the cost of my life and the lives of anyone who would do her harm._


End file.
